101: Abortion Abolitionists

This 101 was updated in February 2026. 

Self-described “abortion abolitionists” are a militant faction of the anti-abortion movement in the U.S. They coalesced as the Abortion Abolition movement during Trump’s first administration amid a national wave of racial justice uprisings. Drawing inspiration from the 19th century anti-slavery abolitionists, religious leaders in this camp often equate embryos and fetuses with enslaved people to justify denying bodily autonomy. While Christian nationalist influences expanded restrictions on reproductive health access, culminating in the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, Abortion Abolitionists opposed even those efforts, claiming that the measure hadn’t gone far enough. Rejecting the mainstream’s incremental approach, so-called abolitionists frame abortion as “murder” and call for state governments to criminally prosecute both patients and providers. 

While around 63 percent of Americans support abortion as legal in all or most cases, this militant, theocratic network of state-wide and national organizations—ranging from Abolitionists Rising, to the Arizona-based End Abortion Now, to Abolish Abortion Oklahoma—has become a powerful influence on state laws, public rhetoric, and mainstream politics, helping justify total bans, six-week laws, and personhood measures. Through high-profile protests, social media campaigns, and confrontational tactics, the movement opposes mainstream Republicans for “compromising.” Abortion Abolitionists push back against a secular A neutral term used to describe someone or something, such as in law, as non-religious in character. Learn more justice system and advocate for adopting harsher policies, thus shifting the Overton Window The Overton Window is a model for understanding how ideas in society change over time and influence politics. The core concept is that politicians or movements generally only pursue policies or demands that are widely accepted throughout society as legitimate. These policies/demands lie inside the Overton Window. But the Overton Window can both shift and expand. Learn more far beyond what many of us thought was possible.

Led primarily by White, male, conservative Baptists, Presbyterians, and Christian Reconstructionists, the Abortion Abolitionist movement now shapes some Republican rhetoric and platforms nationwide. In Texas, Abolishing Abortion became part of the state GOP platform in 2022, and by March 2025, ten states had legislators introducing bills aligned with this agenda, forming an organized interstate network. Following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, leaders argued the Court hadn’t gone far enough, framing abortion from conception as “homicide”—a stance that in some states could expose patients to the death penalty. 

While the movement remains on the margins of MAGA Short for Make America Great Again, the slogan of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Learn more , both Trump administrations have signaled support through judicial appointments and pardons of anti-abortion activists. When President Trump returned to office in January 2025, one of his first actions was to pardon several individuals convicted under the FACE Act, a law created to stop harassment, blockades, and violence targeting abortion clinics. These pardons immediately emboldened anti-abortion lawmakers to renew efforts to repeal the FACE Act entirely, signaling support for those who use intimidation and force to restrict access to reproductive care.

This Abortion Abolitionist movement is deeply intertwined with the militant wings of the Christian Right A movement that emerged in the 1970s encompassing a wide swath of conservative Catholicism and Protestant evangelicalism. Learn more and the Patriot movement, drawing on a theocratic interpretation of scripture known as Christian Reconstructionism. Adherents of this ideology view abortion, same-sex relationships, and adultery as capital offenses punishable by death. The movement shares leaders with the violent wing of the 1990s anti-abortion movement, Patriot movement organizations, the Christian homeschooling movement, and leaders of the Christian Right legislative playbook, Project Blitz. 

Abortion Abolitionists, driven by a militant theological vision, have an outsized and significant impact on the Right’s landscape in ways that pose immediate and long-term threats to bodily autonomy. They are fanatics, and truly believe in what they are fighting for. Learning about this network also illustrates how a far-right militant social movement A mass movement that seeks to transform society and challenge existing power relationships by means other than (but often including) the political electoral process. Learn more has shaped law, policy, and culture in the U.S. Republican Party, with grave impacts on the reproductive rights landscape.